Flexible disk drives, which are also known as floppy disk drives or diskette drives, have the capability of reading or writing magnetic signals on interchangeable flexible disks. The flexible disk is loosely contained in a flexible cartridge or envelope (as shown and described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,102).
The envelope, or cartridge, has a central aperture through which the central aperture of the disk is exposed, and there is also a head access slot through the envelope so that a recording head can interact with the surface of the disk. In addition, a cleaning liner is normally included within the envelope so that, upon application of pressure thereto, the cleaning liner engages the surface of a rotating disk.
When a disk is loaded in the disk drive, a collet clamps the disk to a spindle which is driven to rotate the disk within the disk envelope. Also, a recording head (or heads) is loaded against the surface of the disk through the access slot, and, a pressure pad is gently loaded against the envelope at a position adjacent the head access slot to cause the cleaning liner within the disk envelope to wipe the disk surface just prior to the surface moving past the recording head.
To unload and/or reload a flexible disk cartridge in the disk drive, requires the pressure pad, recording head and collet to be lifted in a direction away from the disk cartridge. The disk cartridge may then be pulled from the drive and another disk cartridge can be inserted, if desired. Actuators for lifting and then lowering the pressure pad, recording head and collet are well known. Examples of such actuators may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,040,106 and 4,193,102.
In the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,106, a "wishbone" frame is utilized to carry a collet, a cleaning pressure pad and a head-pad lifting bail. The top of the wishbone frame is attached to a door at the disk cartridge insertion slot. When the door is pivoted up, the wishbone frame lifts the collet clear of the drive spindle, lifts the cleaning pressure pad from the disk envelope, and lifts the bail which raises the head pressure pad from the disk surface.
In the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,102, solenoids and cams are utilized to actuate lifting arms. One arm is a flat spring that lifts and lowers the collet relative to the spindle in response to pressure from a cam rotated by a load lever. Another cam carries the cleaning pressure pad and the recording head lifting bail. This arm is released for operation by the load lever that is actuated by a solenoid. The cleaning pressure pad and recording head are loaded against the head by the solenoid only during read/write operations.
Disk operating devices are also shown, by way of example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,040,107 and 4,125,883, as well as in an article by J. J. Holecek, G. E. Lightner and M. N. Zell, entitled "Centering and Clamping a Floppy Disk in a Diskette Drive", appearing in IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Volume 26, Number 1, June, 1983, pages 166-167.
Thus, while disk drive devices are now known and/or utilized, further improvements thereto are still felt warranted, including improvements to reduce design and/or manufacturing expense requirements and/or to provide disk drive devices that lend themselves to automated manufacturing operations.